Stocks recovering after three-day slide
NEW YORK – The stock market sputtered to an indecisive close Thursday, taking a pause after three straight days of losses.
Small company stocks, which have slumped 10 percent from their early-July peak into what’s known as a “correction,” recovered the most.
Thursday’s pause followed what has been a tough spell for the market, including the Dow Jones industrial average’s 238-point drop Wednesday and a weak September.
Stocks had been sharply lower most of the day, only to recover in the last couple of hours of trading.
Rovio plans layoffs citing slowed growth
Angry Birds maker Rovio Entertainment Ltd. will cut as much as 16 percent of its workforce after building up its staff too quickly following the success of its most popular game.
In a blog post Thursday titled “Towards a simplified organization,” Chief Executive Mikael Hed said that in order to succeed in a fast-moving business, the company needed to better adapt to change.
He called the layoffs of as many as 130 people in Finland, where the company is based, “painful measures,” but didn’t offer details on what kinds of jobs would be cut and when.
Hed said the mobile games maker had built out its team based on assumptions of faster growth that didn’t materialize. It currently has about 800 employees.
Sandler to star in four movies for Netflix
NEW YORK – In its bid to upend the movie business the way it has television, Netflix has secured one of the big screen’s big box-office draws.
Adam Sandler has signed a four-film deal with Netflix, the streaming service announced. The actor will star in and produce each feature, all of which will premiere exclusively on Netflix.
“When these fine people came to me with an offer to make four movies for them, I immediately said yes for one reason and one reason only: Netflix rhymes with wet chicks,” Sandler said in a statement.
Netflix declined to say how much it was paying Sandler.
Recall covers 117,000 late-model GM vehicles
DETROIT – General Motors said it would recall 117,651 vehicles in North America to fix a chassis control module defect that could suffer an electrical short that might cause engines to stall.
While the company said the problem can occur in only about 1 percent of the recalled units, it issued a stop-delivery notice to dealers covering 2013 and 2014 models of Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban; Cadillac CTS, Escalade and Escalade SUV; GMC Yukon; and only the 2014 models of the Chevrolet Traverse, Express van and Silverado HD; GMC Acadia, Savana van and Sierra HD.
Most of Sears Canada being sold by retailer
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – Sears, sorely in need of cash, is selling most of its stake in its Canadian unit to raise as much as $380 million.
The rights offering to shareholders for the majority of its 51 percent stake in Sears Canada Inc. will give the retailer some breathing room as it heads into the crucial holiday season.
The offering comes after Sears failed to find a buyer for the Canadian operations and also the announcement last week that the president and CEO of the unit, Douglas Campbell, would leave at the end of the year.
The company board approved a rights offering of up to 40 million shares of Sears Canada Inc. Sears will still hold about 12 million shares, valued at about $113 million.